Christmas has become too commercialized. The spirit of Christmas is all but gone and that is just sad. As a matter of fact, I cringe every time I see a particular store's Christmas commercials.
"Ring ding a ding, ring ding a ding, ring me up! This is going to be a great Christmas."
We're in the middle of a recession. Millions of people are out of work and / or are living below poverty level. Layaway does not make a great Christmas. Expensive gifts do not make a great Christmas. We know this. Family makes a great Christmas. But those that made Christmas great for me as a child aren't here anymore. What did they do that made Christmas fantastic?
During the Christmas devotional, President Dieter Uchtdorf explained how he very nearly ruined Christmas. When he was four, he wanted to see how pretty a candle would look behind their shimmery curtains. The curtains caught fire and he just knew that he had ruined Christmas.
Of course, Christmas wasn't really ruined.
Christmas isn't about the gifts or the decorations. Christmas is about celebrating Christ and everything Christ stands for. In my ever so humble opinion, Christ should be celebrated everyday and especially celebrated on Christmas day. Instead, Christmas has become a holiday for sales, crowd control, and credit card debt. Pepper spraying fellow shoppers, stepping over people as they die in the aisle, and camping out instead of celebrating Thanksgiving with your family is NOT how Christ would want us to celebrate Christmas.
So why can't I stop buying gifts for Matthew? (That's rhetorical, mmmkay? Thanks.)
I recently went to Target to go Christmas shopping for a few more things to put under the tree. I had to find the perfect wrapping paper. There had to have been hundreds of rolls to choose from: Santa Claus, reindeer, Charlie Brown, Spongebob Squarepants, paisley prints, and Justin Bieber. What does Justin Bieber have to do with Christmas? Nothing! So why is his face covering rolls of wrapping paper? (Again, rhetorical.)
Christmas is my favorite holiday of the entire year. Mostly because it feels like home. I can still smell Grandpa's word burning stove, feel its heat on my skin. The excitement of knowing that Santa would be coming soon. What would he bring me? The tradition of excitement has been passed on to Matthew. But President Monson asked that we focus on Christ by loving and serving others instead of focusing on the commercial aspect. (Sorry, Justin Bieber!)
“The spirit of Christmas is the spirit of love and of generosity and of goodness,” President Monson said. “It illuminates the picture window of the soul, and we look out upon the world’s busy life and become more interested in people than in things.”
How do we put Christ back into Christmas? Matthew thinks we should recreate a life-size nativity in our living room. Which is an excellent idea, though not very practical. It's hard to teach children to put Christ back into Christmas when they are inundated with all of the latest greatest gizmos and gadgets. The look on Matthew's face when he unwraps his presents is priceless! The twinkle in his eye and the smile that hits his lips when he sees the new toy makes my heart melt.
How can we recreate that excitement without embracing commercialism?
http://lds.org/bible-videos/videos/shepherds-learn-of-the-birth-of-christ?lang=eng
Nobody is perfect and I'm not innocent when it comes to living beyond my means. I need to find a cheaper, more meaningful way to spend Christmas and welcome your ideas.
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